Building Cyborgs in He She and It Essay -- Argumentative Persuasive Mo

Building Cyborgs in He She and It Wouldn't you love to create your perfect man or woman? How about if they were a machine built only for you? The idea of artificial intelligence and cyborgs (human-like machines which can think) is not as far away as we might think. In the novel, He She and It, Marge Piercy brings this interesting aspect of future technology to the forefront. The hero of this exciting novel is a cyborg named Yod. He was built with the hope of protecting a small independent Jewish town from being destroyed by the surrounding large corporation cities. He was built by a man but programmed by a woman. This dynamic is shown even in the title, He She and It. Yod is built biologically like a man, programmed by a woman, and not actually human. Although Yod was programmed for protection, he was also given the ability to learn, think, and feel. Because of these abilities he thought like a human would. He had human-like qualities and emotions but none of the rights that go along with being human. Because Yod was built for protection this is the only job he was expected to do. No one thought about him falling in love, wanting to be a husband and a father, and wanting a life for himself; "I had only been fully engaged or bored. I had been puzzled. I had been frightened. I had been angry. But I had never been happy until we came back here with Ari and you told him I was his stepfather."(pg 364) Yod said this to his lover in a passionate moment in the novel. Does this sound like a being that thinks and feels? It sure does. So the real question that this novel brings up is now that artificial intelligence is on its way, how far should we go with it and if we do create a sentient being what rights does it have. Piercy sho... ... personal cyborg, I think I would program it to be compassionate and with a thorough knowledge of message. This way I could come home at the end of a long day and tell it all of my worries while having the stress massaged out. (I hope my husband doesn’t get jealous!) Ah, the simple dreams of a middle class American. Again, however, the issue becomes if they are more then robots programmed to do our bidding and they have human-like qualities, then they deserve more then a slave’s life. If we create a being able to make choices it is then unfair to place them in a position of servitude. Until we are able to truly say that any being with a conscious deserves rights and are willing to give them those rights, we need to stick to our computers and robots. Artificial intelligence is more then creating a technology, it is creating a being and that is an awesome thought.